j.lowe : making and finding stuff

Last night I was having a discussion about this generation.

My friend Tony Frusciante said “We are all in the business of making our lives incredible. The Tony life. The Justin life. The Briana life.” It’s a self centered world right now. We are selfish. But that doesn’t mean we lack compassion and don’t care about things outside of ourselves.

If you have a social cause. You know even something as cliche as “save the whales!” – there is a way to go about getting this generation to care. And it’s not getting in people’s faces on the street and saying “Do you have a minute for the whales?” And it’s not making a television commercial with a call to action – or a tagline that tells this generation “You should care about this and this is what you should do.” This generation does not want to be told what to do. Young people in general don’t want to be told what to do. It’s more about making something or presenting something to them – that makes them FEEL. And if they feel something – they will care more. And if they care – then they will take action.

I’ll give you one more example – say, a local park is not being maintained well, and all it would take is for some people to volunteer to cut the grass or pick up a litter on a weekend – whatever. If you want people to do that – first the park has to be useful to them. They have to get some enjoyment out of it. That’s the selfish part I’m speaking of. Maybe they play kickball there. Then it will matter to them. And if it doesn’t matter to them – show them how it could. Organize a kickball game there. Let people have fun. Then ask them for a little help so the fun can keep going.